In class, we were tasked with learning the program ‘VCV Rack’ which is a digital modular synth that allows for some incredibly interesting results when utilised effectively. After some experimentation, I ended up with this short track idea as a result.
My favourite part about Rashad Becker’s production is the feeling of constantly changing and flowing dynamics and emotions. This was not something I had time to capture, so I instead opted on making something simply as an exercise of Becker style sound design.
I spent a lot of my time getting familiar with VCV rack, and ended up with a few different synth patches. I then ran these through resonator plugins that gave them a gnarled, twisted sound.
For one of the patches, I created a synth with an LFO that moves consistently up and down in pitch, much like Rashad Becker does on tracks such as ‘Theme VI’. This became the main melodic line in the track. The resonator added to the synth afterwards made the pitch feel more cohesive as there is a subtle movement in pitch running underneath the resonating frequency.
The next patch was less melodic and more of an ear candy FX sound. I used an unfathomable quantity of LFO’s to create this spiralling, laser like sound. This runs in the background of the track to fill out some space.
The final patch was a melodic ear candy line that comes in every 4 bars or so. This was a more regular sounding synth when I designed it in VCV rack, not using too many LFO’s or weird noises, however when ran through the resonators it turned in to a more textural sound.
This workflow was very enjoyable and felt more like sounds were being discovered than created. The magic in the modular synthesis displayed here comes from the unexpected, not knowing exactly what will happen if you change this setting or re-route your signal flow differently. This is not to say that there is not room for intentionality, as many decisions made are very purposeful in achieving a desired sound, however there is always room for experimenting and not knowing exactly what the outcome is going to be with modular synthesis and that is the most exciting part to me.
Another part of studying Rashad Becker that has inspired me is his free-flowing structure of songs. Although not expressed in the song I made for this specific project, the mentality has spread to me to break out of traditional song structure in my own unrelated work. As someone who is sick of writing with traditional song structure and music theory, this form of musical expression is extremely enticing to me.